The present invention relates to an absorbent article such as a sanitary napkin, a pantiliner, or an incontinence pad for absorbing menstrual blood, vaginal discharge, and the like, and, specifically, relates to an absorbent article in which an uncomfortable feeling when it is worn is reduced by preventing wrinkles of its flap portion from being generated.
As absorbent articles for sanitary napkins, pantiliners, vaginal discharge sheets, incontinence pads, and the like, conventionally known is, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, an absorbent article N that includes an absorber 52 formed of, for example, cotton-like pulp interposed between a back sheet 50 formed of, for example, a polyethylene sheet or a polyethylene laminated nonwoven fabric and a liquid-permeable top sheet 51 formed of, for example, a nonwoven fabric or a porous plastic sheet and also includes side nonwoven fabrics 53 respectively disposed on both sides of the top surface along the longitudinal direction and a flap portion at the circumference of the absorber 52. The flap portion is constituted by bonding the back sheet 50 and the top sheet 51 or the side nonwoven fabrics 53 and does not include the absorber 52.
In such a type of the absorbent article N, since the absorber 52 is substantially square or 8-shaped, the outline is also substantially square, oval, or 8-shaped, and, usually, its front end and back end are each shaped in a simple arc-shaped curve in order to soften the contact with the skin (for example, see herein referenced Patent Documents 1 and 2).
When the absorbent article N is fixed to a undergarment 20, as shown in FIG. 9, the absorbent article N is put at an appropriate local portion of the undergarment 20, and both the wing-like flaps W, W that protrude sideward are taken out from the undergarment, folded back along folding lines RL, RL, and attached to the outer surface of the crotch of the undergarment 20 so as to wrap around the crotch portion of the undergarment. The patent documents herein referred to are:
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-2003-275240
[Patent Document 2] JP-A-2004-49696